The Tourism Council of Thailand, the supposed go-between for the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the private sector, has a long and worthless list of ideas to help Thai Tourism recover in 2015.
The problems with the list are many since most of the Tourism Council of Thailand strategic suggestions are geared toward domestic tourism, are flat out ridiculous, or will be totally disregarded by the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
Tourism Council of Thailand Baht
The Tourism Council of Thailand met with the Tourism Authority of Thailand in Hua Hin this past week to go over the big recovery plans for 2015. I guess doing in their co-located offices in Bangkok wasn’t a conducive work environment.
Travel Impact Newswire covered the meeting and provided an unofficial translation. The Tourism Council of Thailand is just as clueless as the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
The first couple of items on the wish list are general BS. Here is what the Tourism Council of Thailand sees as the major problems affecting Thai Tourism:
4. However, it is regrettable that for 10 years, the growth of the tourism industry has been impacted by economic crises, natural disasters and internal conflict, as well as various structural issues that have built up over time. These include:
4.1 Problems with the management of various tourism related organizations which are scattered, lacking in integration and direction, causing disconnection.
4.2 Problems of insecurity of lives and property while travelling in the country and problems of tourist scams and exploitation.
4.3 Problems related to congestion and deterioration of tourist sites and lack of development of new sites with future potential.
4.4 Inability to generate higher value added for tourism goods and services, leading to increased expenses and affecting visitor impressions.
All generalizations – nothing at all concrete from the Tourism Council of Thailand. And, here are the Proposals to rehabilitate Thai tourism in the near term:
1. Let the head of NCPO (the National Council for Peace and Order, the name under which the military government is presently running Thailand) Chair a National Tourism Policy Committee (NTPC), under the National Tourism Policy Act 2008 as the mechanism to define policy and manage tourism in a cohesive manner at the national, regional and local levels so that tourism management is independent and appropriate. According to the Act, 14 governmental agencies are involved. The most important issues that the NTPC should tackle is the integration of all tourism related work in order to generate maximum benefit, enhance communication and create understanding, thereby boosting visitor confidence, solving the problem of influential figures, etc. To ensure effectiveness, the NTPC should be upgraded to an office similar to the Board of Investment to prevent duplication and increase cohesion.
First bit of lunacy from the Tourism Council of Thailand is to form a committee. Thailand is famous for forming committees, holding meetings, allocating budget money, and then doing nothing.
2. Suppress local influential figures in tourist locations that affect the safety of tourists, such as in Suvarnabhumi airport, in front of the Grand Palace as well as in various parts of Phuket, Chiang Mai and Samui.
Suppress? How? This is a job for the Royal Thai Police, not for the Tourism Council of Thailand or the Tourism Authority of Thailand. The Thai Police have started ridding Phuket of the illegal taxis and have a plan for the taxis at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok. As far as the scammers in Bangkok, Pattaya. and Phuket. who knows if and when they will be dealt with.
3. Do urgent positive PR for the world to understand the present situation and ensure that news from both the public and private sector is consistent. Other than that, rely on direct communication by tourists who come to Thailand and target high potential markets which can recover quickly such as the Asian countries which now accounts for 65% of the total. Involve the private sector in defining target markets and participating in all promotional and marketing activities.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand has been spreading its rose-colored views of Thailand via the TATnews.org website, one that hardly anyone ever sees. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has also uploaded some very lame, 30-second videos that do not get the main points across.
3.1 Promote mega events such as international sporting events or concerts that create a good image for Thailand.
3.2 Arrange Mega Famtrip focussed specially on the off season period;
3.3 Organise roadshows in markets that can bounce back quickly, such as China, Japan, Korea, Russia.
3.4 Create incentives for airlines to bring back visitors.
3.5 Create guarantees for the safety of tourists. Compensation may be offered for accidents within the country, as travel advisories are impeding the tourists’ ability to get travel insurance.
What international sporting events? You cannot just pull an international event out of one’s ass. Concerts are usually geared toward local Thais living in Bangkok. Roadshows are just boondoggle trips and are a big waste of money. Incentives for airlines is a good idea but the Tourism Council of Thailand and the Tourism Authority of Thailand will only approach Thai Airlines – which, unfortunately is having a rough go and should wind up in bankruptcy soon. The Tourism Council of Thailand cannot guarantee the safety of tourists. Remember last year when the Ministry of Tourism and Sports declared certain areas in Bangkok, Pattaya, and Phuket as “Safety Zones” and even hung up pretty banners. Once the photo-ops were done, so were the Safety Zones.
4 Implement measures to stimulate domestic tourism to promote economic recovery and create reconciliation, such as:
4.1 Let government and state enterprises arrange seminars and field trips to upcountry destinations.
4.2 Consider allowing civil servants, state employees and private sector employees to adjust various public holidays alongside weekends (Sat-Sun) to have more long weekends as a means of stimulating domestic tourism.
4.3 Offer tourism prizes to civil servants, soldiers, police and top students all over Thailand within a 10,000 baht limit.
4.4 Allow up to 20,000 baht in personal income tax deductions for domestic tourism expenses including accommodation and legally registered tourism companies
4.5 Allow tax-deductions for private company seminar and incentives expenses.
There should be no real need for additional incentives for domestic travelers as Thais will travel when they want to. The long weekend for August was just approved to add an additional day to Mother’s Day giving local Thais an extra day to go out and get in a car accident.
5. Measures to mitigate the impact for tour operators
5.1 Have state owned banks give low interest loans to tour operators to improve and upgrade their services as well as to improve cash flow by allocating a separate budget for tourism because approvals require different criteria from other industries.
5.2 Grant an extension in tax deadlines between 2014-2015 such as property tax and local maintenance tax by collecting 50% up front and the remainder within the next 2 years.
Totally off base here. Tour operators are dinosaurs and the only thing that should possibly be done for them is job training in a different career field.
6. Introduce measures to support and encourage tourism, such as:
6.1 Lower the cost of entry to various sales promotion events in Thailand and abroad organised by the TAT and TCEB to encourage operators to participate.
6.2 Give free entry to tourist attractions nationwide for a short period.
6.3 Waive Chinese visa fees for 6 months as well as increase the processing speed and convenience of Visa on Arrival.
6.4 Let Thai Airways pioneer a “Big Promotion” of attractively priced fares in cooperation with the private sector.
6.5 Reduce Airport Tax by 50%.
Of course, all of the above in section 6 have not been vetted thoroughly and the Tourism Council of Thailand has no idea how much this will cost the Thai Government and/or Thai Airways.
The Medium/Long Term Measures are mostly pie in the sky dreams some of which have already been nixed by the ruling dictatorship (airport expansion and the above visa fee waivers for Chinese tourists):
Measures in the medium term (one year).
1. Accelerate expansion of international and regional airports which are gateways to Thailand and important links with neighbouring countries, Suvarnabhumi must get priority, especially the issue of construction of a third runway.
2. Accelerate construction of the extension to Phuket airport as well as upgrade U-Tapao (naval base airfield, south of Pattaya) to a full commercial airport to help alleviate the capacity of Suvarnabhumi, the main gateway airport in Bangkok.
3. Halve the various aviation-related charges especially those levied by the civil service and state enterprises such as Aerothai, Department of Civil Aviation, and Airports of Thailand for a minimum of two years.
4. Curb erosion in the Gulf of Thailand especially around Cha-am and Hua Hin as well as encroachment of local communities which have constructed roads into the sand for convenience in fishing causing the water to change directions as well as building piers for fishing vessels which is a hindrance to travel.
5. Reduce the TOU electrical rate for large hotels in the same way as small hotels which at present is 5%. The rate should be in the same range as industrial factories.
6. Reform tourism-related laws to better reflect the present situation and bring them under the supervision of one organisation.
7. Improve the procedure for registration of a travel company in order to increase the quality and standards of operators.
8. Encourage investment in tourism businesses
8.1 Support the establishment of new attractions.
8.2 Encourage the renovation of hotels and theme parks to create quality tourism and encourage the maintenance or upgrading of standards for visitors, reduce energy consumption and environmental pollution in order to maintain a positive image of Thai tourism.
9. Update the fee structure of national parks to take into account the participation of tour operators and the community as well as upgrade park facilities to meet international standards.
10. Improve IT systems and install Free High Speed Internet at tourist attractions to facilitate tourists and allow them to help promote tourist sites.
11. Implement a main tourism campaign such as Visit Thailand Year to be conducted and coordinated by both the public and private sectors.
12. Organise safe and convenient public transport in tourist cities.
13. Create a standards system for tourism goods and services to increase quality and competitiveness via an agreement between Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, and the Thai Tourism Council. The law governing the various organisations has given them charge of standards, therefore objectives should be separated clearly so that the Ministry of Industry coordinates and establishes the big picture, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports defines standards for various activities and the Tourism Council creates the accreditation system for tour operators.
So, I hope that the Tourism Council of Thailand doesn’t get their hopes up too high because the vast majority of these suggestions will go in the trash.
What bothers me is the glaring absence of two items: ASEAN Economic Community and Social Media.
The Tourism Council of Thailand either doesn’t understand the impact of the AEC 2015 on Thailand and still wants mega this and mega that instead of using Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to its advantage.
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